August Trei

August Trei. Photo: R. Hansen 1961. ERA, Foto 5561.

The songs by local songmaker Mihkel Trei were very popular in Valjala neighbourhood. His nephew, August Trei, continued the tradition by performing them and sharing memories about him. (From the description of the video "Songmakers, singers and instrumentalists"; Rüütel 2014: 28)

In the evening Juhan Lätt led us to August Trei's place in Haeska village. August Mihkel Trei's nephew. August Trei was also said to be a singer and songmaker. Lätt doubted the man was going to sing for us, for he was of proud disposition. In reality, all went very well. We did not need to plead with him or do a lot of explanatory work. August Trei is really a great singer and joker. When he started to sing, he sounded so loud that our microphone almost broke down. We put four layers of capron stocking over the microphone, and asked the singer to be in one corner of the room, while the tape recorder was in the other, only then it was possible to record the song with a normal volume. At first Trei announced with a lot of laughter that he was going to sing "from underneath his navel", but when he sang into the microphone, he left all the indecent words out. We recorded several Mihkel Trei's songs from him, which were very popular in the neighbourhood. /---/ In the end, A. Trei sang one of his own songs that was about himself. Quite by chance, a man of his age came by the house. Together they sang another local song about Jaani-Tooma farm. It was late, we had to finish, although we could have surely obtained more songs. We agreed to come back Friday evening and left in excellent spirits. We had never heard such a vivid performance of village songs. In Valjala, the tradition of village songs is still very much alive. We did not hear the newest mocking songs, however, since the singers were afraid, we would transmit them on the radio. (From the field work diary of O. Kõiva, June 6, 1961; Rüütel 2015: 175–176)